Greetings to Everyone from Mad Dog

[Mad Dog]

I am writing to introduce myself to the board.

I am a long time NBJ player. I was in the first NBJ class taught by E Clifton Davis in 1991. I was also personally trained by Ed Goldstein, a highly skilled NBJ player who was active in the 90s.

I want to say here and now that NBJ rocks. Ellis, I really must say, you are the man!

Mad Dog

[Guest CarlosM]

Welcome! Now things are getting exciting here! I hope all is well. When was your most recent casino trip or play session if blackjack? How is Ed? maybee one time you could post an inpirational story of your experiences with Sir Goldstein? That would be an exciting read for all of us here.

[Mad Dog]

I lost track of Ed in the mid 90s. I have no idea where he disappeared to.

The most important thing Ed taught me was how to train. At Ed's house in Tucson, he had a fold-up card table with felt stapled to it. He had a couple dozen six deck "shoes" which where bound together with rubber bands. He sat there all day and dealt cards to himself while the TV provided background noise. He was an incredible instinctive card player and bettor. He really was phenomenal.

When Ed lost a hand during his practice session, he would stop and look at the table to see if there was anything on that table that would suggest making the correct move. If there was, then he would burn that into his brain, and keep going. All that practice produced a natural instinct for card play. Birds know how to fly; fish know how to swim. Ed knew how to play his hand.

Once I saw him with a hard twelve against a dealer ten. He stopped the game and took his time. He usually made his decisions very quickly but this time he was frozen. The tension at the table was building, but Ed had tuned that out. The only thing Ed saw was the cards. Finally he smiled and waved his hand to signal he wanted to stay. The dealer turned it, showed a two in the hole, and immediately broke with another ten. I don't know what was going through Ed's mind, but I did learn to stop the game when I wanted to think my move over.

Ed ONLY played third base. He had no interest in anything else, although once I played sac at third base with him at my right just to try it out.

One other remarkable thing about Ed was that he only brought two hundred bucks to the casino. He always won, except once that I know of. He always left when he reached his stop win.

Ed played during the day. I asked him if that's when the cards were better. He didn't answer my question except by saying "That's when I'M better."

That's it for now. Good luck from Mad Dog.

[Guest CarlosM]

That was awsome!

[ECD]

Ed Goldstein was a character and a half. I met him when he showed up at one of my Vegas seminars with his ever present wife. As soon as I saw him I knew who belonged to the motor cycle out front. His wife and motor cycles were the only things Ed loved more than BJ. He never said a word durring the seminar but approached me afterwords introducing himself as the best player in Vegas.

He said that it was the first time he ever heard what he does at the table put into words. He said that before the seminar he thought he was the only player in the world that understood the game. He lamented that nobody else plays this game right. We ended up playing up and down the strip that night winning at all seven casinos we played.

Afterward he said I could do your seminar better than you. So I said well we have a seminar scheduled at the Holiday tomorrow at 7P. Why don't you take it. Much to my surprise he said sure.

We had all the people seated and I was about to start the seminar myself when we heard the unmistakable roar of a motor cycle deafeningly close. When Ed walked in in front of 55 attendees I took one look at him and said Oh No! His equally dressed wife in tow, Ed was resplendent in muddy motor cycle boots, greesey jeans with holes in the knees, and a black filthy Hell's Angles T shirt with a 9 inch triangular tear acoss his chest with black gleaming chest hair poking through.

When I reluctantly introduced him he simply said to me: "That will be all". As I made my way to the door he began by saying, "I'm here to tell you why you lose and I win". This drew a large roar from the audience, most of whom seemed to know Ed. Then the audience was abuzz with those who knew telling those who didn't who Ed was. I could hear: "That's the guy I was telling you about - That guy that always wins!"

He starts out by declaring, "Basic Strategy is right when it talks about how to play your good hands. But winning BJ is not about how to play your good hands. Any idiot knows how to play their good hands. Winning Bj is about how to play your bad hands. Why would you stand and bet the dealer will break like basic strategy makes you when you know damn well that the dealer is not going to break because she almost never does. Why would you bet on something that almost never happens. That's plain ignorant. This here book" and he thumps an NBJ Manual "tells you what basic strategy doesn't, how to fight to win your fair share of your bad hands. Basic Strategy says give up. If you are that stupid, you will lose."

I walked to the bar thinking all is lost. Before I finished my first Scotch I heard the seminar door open. It was my secretary coming out. She knew where to find me. I asked who's taking orders. She threw up her hands and said Ed's wife. I taught her how cause she wanted to do it. I immediately went back to my Scotch. Just 20 minutes later Ed's wife came out. I said where's Ed. Surrounded by a bunch of people asking stupid questions. I asked who's taking orders. She answed handing me a pile of credit card receipts. Heres 47. The rest are in cash in this plastic bag! It was the quickest seminar in history and from a % of sales standpoint, the best.

A couple years later they took a west coast motor cycle trip clear up to Alaska. I stayed in the office booking seminars ahead of them, posting newspaper ads and overnighting boxes of manuals to the seminar sites. I gave them half the money. When they returned to Arizona two months later, Ed called me and said You Know Ellis, our dream is to open up a motor cycle camping site here in the desert. We've got more than enough money now so we quit. I never heard from Ed again.